Islamic State militants have seized a major Syrian air base, wiping out the last government stronghold in a province dominated by jihadists.

The extremists won a week-long battle today to capture the sprawling Tabqa base 25 miles from their stronghold in Raqqa, reportedly killing dozens of soldiers in the process.

The base was reportedly one of the military's largest facilities in the region, with several warplane squadrons, helicopters, tanks, artillery and ammunition.

Dubious celebration: Islamic State extremists smiled broadly and embraced today after they won a bloody battle to seize the Tabqa air base, the last surviving government outpost in Syria's Raqqa province

Damage: The capture followed several days of fighting between Islamic State militants and Syrian government forces. Pictured, A man inspects damage at the entrance of a Tabqa hospital after a government air strike

Its capture is a huge blow to President Assad's regime and will spark concern over the treatment of any survivors.

Militants beheaded Syrian soldiers and impaled their heads on fence posts when they captured similar bases, including the sprawling Division 17 base in Raqqa.

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There were several failed efforts to breach the facility's walls in recent days but the facility was captured today, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Despite government airstrikes to try to beat back the attack, the jihadis quickly quashed the remaining pockets of resistance, killing dozens of soldiers.

Sprawling: An image of what is believed to be the air base, just south of the city of Tabqa, shows its long fence

Arsenal: Campaigners say the base contained weapons and jets which may now be used by the militants

SPIES 'CLOSE TO UNMASKING ISIS EXECUTIONER JAILER JOHN'

Spies are close to identifying the hooded jihadist dubbed Jailer John who beheaded the journalist James Foley, Britain's ambassador to the U.S. revealed today.

'I can't say more than this but I know from my colleagues at home that we are close,' Peter Westmacott told CNN.

'We're putting a lot into it and there are sophisticated technologies, voice identification and so on which people can use to check who these people are'.

A 'significant force' of SAS soldiers and signallers have deployed to northern Iraq in the hunt for the extremists, who spoke with British accents and callously boasted of making personal fortunes from ransoms paid for other released hostages.

The gang openly talked of making so much money they could ‘retire to Kuwait or Qatar’, according to testimonies by former hostages obtained by The Mail on Sunday.

'Some of the Syrian regime troops pulled
out and now the Islamic State is in full control of Tabqa,' said
Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman.

'This makes Raqqa province the first to fully fall out of government hands.'

Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, also said the extremist group was in control.

The SANA state news agency confirmed that the government had lost the air base, saying troops 'are successfully reassembling after evacuating the airport.'

Fighters have swept through a huge tract of northeastern Syria after seizing control of much of northern and western Iraq in June.

From their Syrian stronghold in Raqqa they have declared a self-styled caliphate, a Sunni regime ordering its subjects to operate under an extreme interpretation of Sharia law.

It has opened up three fronts in the fighting in Syria, which is already home to a bloody and long-running civil war between President Assad's forces and anti-government rebels.

Islamist militants have fought soldiers from both sides of the previous conflict making large parts of the country unstable.

Damaged: A smashed ambulance in front of the National Hospital of Tabqa after a Syrian air strike

Destroyed: More damage to the inside of the hospital. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: 'Some of the Syrian regime troops pulled out, and now the Islamic State is in full control of Tabqa'

Key target: The extremists won a week-long battle to capture the sprawling Tabqa base 25 miles from their stronghold in Raqqa, reportedly killing dozens of soldiers in the process

Taking opponents at first by surprise and building a reputation for callous ruthlessness, militants have overwhelmed outposts held by rival rebels in Deir el-Zour province, which borders Iraq,

But the have also systematically picked off isolated government bases in the northeast, decapitating army commanders and pro-government militiamen and putting their heads on display.

Last month Islamic State fighters overran the sprawling Division 17 military base in Raqqa, killing at least 85 soldiers.

Two weeks later, the extremists seized the nearby Brigade 93 base after days of heavy fighting.

Fightback: Kurdish peshmergas launch missiles at the Islamic State in an attempt to regain control of the town of Celavle in Iraq

Aerial bombardment: The town of Celavle was seized by IS militants on August 11 but peshmergas have started to regain the initiative after receiving arms from the U.S.

Firepower:: Islamic State militants have mostly routed Kurdish forces in the north in recent weeks, seizing more towns, oilfields and Iraq's largest dam, but the Kurds are beginning to fight back

Islamic State militant seized Mosul Dam, but the Kurds took it back last week with the help of U.S. air strikes

In Iraq,
Islamic State militants have mostly routed Kurdish forces in the north
in recent weeks, seizing more towns, oilfields and Iraq's largest dam.

Backed by U.S. air power, Kurdish forces later took back control of Mosul dam.

Bombings
across Iraq killed at least 35 people on Saturday in apparent revenge
attacks after Shi'ite militiamen machine-gunned a Sunni Muslim mosque in
Diyala province on Friday, killing 68 worshippers and deepening the
country's sectarian conflict.

The
violence continued on Sunday, when a car bomb killed seven people in a
mostly Shi'ite area of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

Britain has ruled out sending ground troops into Iraq to fight the jihadists, but it is sending equipment to Kurdish peshmerga fighters (above) who are fighting the Islamic State

On guard: David Cameron announced the appointment of a security envoy to the Kurdish region of Iraq

On alert: Kurdish peshmerga forces position themselves on a road to monitor security and movements around Kirkuk. Three car bombs killed 21 people in the city on Saturday

Tensions run high: A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter takes watch in Kirkuk, where three near-simultaneous car bombs exploded on Saturday, killing 21 people and wounding 118

Britain has
ruled out sending ground troops into Iraq to fight the jihadists, but
it is sending equipment to Kurdish peshmerga fighters who are fighting
IS - such as body armour and night vision equipment - and offering
humanitarian assistance.

Prime
Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office announced on Sunday the
appointment of a security envoy to the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Lieutenant
General Simon Mayall 'will support Kurdish and wider Iraqi efforts to
counter (IS) and work with Iraq's leaders as they establish a unity
government,' a spokesman said.

AIRPORT CCTV SHOWS FIVE 'BRITISH JIHADIS' ON WAY TO FIGHT IN SYRIA

CCTV footage has emerged reportedly showing the moment five separate British jihadis strolled through the departure lounge of Gatwick Airport on their way to fight in Syria.

They are all among more than 500 Britons who have enlisted with jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, prompting warnings of new terror laws from the Home Secretary.

The Gatwick video, which emerged today, purports to show a group of five British jihadis from Portsmouth leaving the airport for Turkey early on October 8 last year.

Chilling: CCTV footage has emerged which reportedly shows five British jihadis walking through Gatwick Airport on their way to Syria. Second left is Mashadur Choudhury, far right is Muhammad Hamidur Rahman

Mashadur Choudhury, 31 (left) returned weeks later and became the first Briton to be convicted over the current conflict in Syria. Former Primark worker Muhammad Rahman (right) was killed while fighting

According to the Sunday Telegraph, the men booked a return journey but instead used an intermediary to cross the border into Syria where they joined militants.

One of the men is said to be 31-year-old Mashadur Choudhury, who returned just weeks later and in May became the first Briton to be convicted of a terror offence in relation to the current conflict.

His 12-day trial at Kingston Crown Court saw social media evidence of him talking about dying a martyr's death and setting up a group called the al-Britani Brigade Bangladeshi Bad Boys.

The trial also heard how he went on a spending spree with £35,000 which he had borrowed from his family, including a £17,000 Audi A6 and £200 prostitutes.

Toll: At least one of the men who is reportedly pictured in the footage has since been killed, said his father

Another of the men was reportedly fellow Portsmouth resident Muhammad Hamidur Rahman.

The 25-year-old was sacked from his job as a Primark store supervisor a month before he left for Syria last October.

His time as an Islamist fighter was short-lived, as his father said earlier this month that he had been killed during the conflict.

The ease with which the men left the country comes despite promises of new laws to crack down on British extremists by the Home Secretary Theresa May.

Yesterday she insisted authorities had already excluded more than 150 people from Britain.

But she was also widely mocked by Labour, a Muslim MP and outspoken Tory David Davis over proposed new laws to stop radical preachers when they were likened to 'Asbos for terrorists'.